As Green As You Can Be

More and more clothing manufacturers are recognizing the need for a more sustainable farming practice.  The “new” farming practice uses up to 73 percent fewer chemical inputs than conventional cotton and that directly benefits the local environment.

Sustainable Cotton encompasses biologically-based, IPM, and organic farming practices in the production, manufacturing and use of cotton. The Sustainable Cotton Project’s grower programs help move farmers through the changeover from chemically-dependent to more biological sound approaches. Composted manures and cover crops replace synthetic fertilizers; innovative weeding strategies are used instead of herbicides; beneficial insects and trap crops control insect pests; and alternatives to toxic defoliants prepare plants for harvest.

The ultimate goal of “sustainable cotton” is to move sustainable production, manufacturing and use practices throughout the cotton value chain in order to create a healthy and profitable industry for growers, their communities, manufacturers, retailers and users of all cotton products.

Another good thing about the organic clothing, unlike organic foods, is that the price isn’t much different than non-organic clothing.  Here are a few examples of shirts that I found online.  A $10 t-shirt is a pretty good deal where I come from, and if it helps me be as green as I can be, all the better!

Organic Arthur T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Horizon T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 11.98	Organic Logo T-Shirt, Long Sleeve, Men’s Price: 12.98
Organic Ice Axe T-Shirt, Long Sleeve, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Stance T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98	Organic Boot T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98
Organic Vision T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 9.98	Organic Moose T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Hawksbill Turtle 2 Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98
Pra Piping Plover Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98	Henslow Sparrow Organic T-Shirt, Women’s Price: 14.98	Organic Acadia T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98
Organic Joshua Tree T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Yellowstone T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 12.98	Organic Long Trail T-Shirt, Men’s Price: 11.98

The greenest recreational activities that I can think of are hiking and low impact camping. Just recently I took my family on a nice little hike, the kids loved walking in the woods, picking up every stick and looking at every bug along the way. Hiking with children isn’t usually a record setting pace, but its important to get your kids outside and away from the television. I like Spongebob as much as the next guy, but walking through the woods or along a river is just so much nicer.

Little Frog

When your kids spend time out in nature, its easier to teach them about conservation and being “green”.  If they see first hand what they are saving or even see the consequences of environmental irresponsibility, it sinks in and stays with them longer.

Down the path

One of the things I really like about hiking and camping is the gear! You can’t tell me you can go into a store like EMS and not get all excited.  I go in their store, or even on the website and I could spend thousands on tents, backpacks and bikes. But in an effort to be as green as I can be, I try to gang my purchases as much as possible to cut down on individual shipments.  I also try to time my big orders with a sale.  It just so happens that EMS is having a pretty good sale right now, the sale offers Free Shipping and a $25 “Gear Bucks” Card on all orders over $125.  No coupons are needed and the sale ends on Tuesday 8/26. Take advantage of the back to school sales going on to gear up!

Hammock camping is getting more and more popular and is about the lowest impact form of camping I know of, that is still comfortable and bug free. Here is the type of hammock I am looking at. It gets you up off the ground and protects you from mosquitoes, Perfect!  Get yourself a little backpack, stuff your hammock, some food and a campstove in there and you could be gone for days!  Some of you might cringe at the freeze dried food, But I swear to you, some of it rocks!  Mountain house brand is all I get and I haven’t found one that I didn’t enjoy.  There is nothing better than swinging in your hammock after a long hike, eating a big bowl of hot Chili Mac.  Mmm Mmm.  I know, I’m going off on a tangent, I just love gear!

So get outside and enjoy nature while you still can!  Some of our national parks are a shadow of what they were when our parents were kids, so imagine how bad they may be when our children take their children.  Anyway hiking and camping is a great excuse to get some really cool gear!

Photo credit: Flickr user Odalaigh

Air travel is a hassle. From parking to negotiating the crowds inside to getting onboard only to find that you can barely fit into your tiny seat, it’s an uncomfortable luxury for which we pay dearly. But, there’s another option if your flight is short. Trains are often cheaper, more comfortable and less of a hassle. America’s train system is far from perfect – hopefully it will be greatly improved upon in the years to come – but it’s still a great option that many people seem to have forgotten about.

From the Traveler’s Notebook:

Consider a 5 hour train ride from Boston to Philadelphia. The equivalent flight takes over two hours; however, after adding in time spent arriving early plus waiting in baggage claim, you can easily spend close to 5 hours in transit. If you take the train instead, you’ll spend $157. The cheapest flight available is $265. That’s a 43% savings over flying, and you can get an additional 10-15% if you are a student, AAA member, or military.

Now that airlines are raising airfares and tacking on more and more fees, it’s a great time to look into whether train travel could be a good option for your next trip. The Traveler’s Notebook has compiled a list of 21 trains that are cheaper and faster than flying. Brilliant! And, taking the train is better for the environment – mile by mile, trains use 28% less fuel than planes and cars.

Link [The Travelers Notebook]
From EarthFirst.com

This year, the natural gas-powered Honda Civic GX claims the title as the greenest vehicle for the fifth year running. Toyota’s hybrid-electric Prius, which places second, is the year’s top-scoring gasoline vehicle, while Honda’s Civic Hybrid ranks a close third. Rounding out the top five are the recently released Smart Fortwo Convertible and Coupe and Toyota Yaris. In total, the Greenest Vehicles list contains one natural gas, four hybrid-electric, and seven conventional gasoline vehicles, a mix of technologies that demonstrates some of the avenues automakers have taken in developing greener vehicles. Whether using hybrid gasoline-electric designs, compressed natural gas, or simply clean and efficient conventional gasoline designs, automakers have visibly demonstrated their ability to engineer with the environment in mind.
This year sees a number of changes to the nameplates on the Greenest Vehicles list. After being shut out of the top twelve in 2007, a domestic automaker makes an appearance on our top-twelve list. The 2008 Tier 2 Bin 3 / PZEV-certified Ford Focus comfortably takes the 9th spot in the annual ranking. Other new entries to the 2008 “Greenest” list include the Smart Fortwo Convertible/Coupe and the Mini Cooper/Clubman, both small cars that achieve excellent fuel economy.  However, Hyundai’s PZEV-certified Elantra narrowly misses a spot on our list, landing in 13th place as a result of the above-mentioned new entries. Following suit are the Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, Chevrolet Cobalt, and Pontiac G5, all of which score very well according to our ranking but face more competition this year from several clean vehicles that have entered the market. This is, of course, good news to consumers, who have greater options when it comes to buying the greenest vehicle that meets their needs and fits their budget.

Other good news is the fact that the vast majority of the year’s greenest vehicles are widely available coast-to-coast. Not too long ago, the list was dominated by vehicles for sale only in California, while today more than 80 percent of the Greenest Vehicles can be purchased in any state.

The above is an excerpt from an article found on Greenercars.org

The absolute best thing you can do to reduce the amount of garbage you send to the landfill is composting. We have been recycling for years but just started composting last week. When we started the recycling program, it cut our trash volume by two thirds at least! Now that we have a compost bin, our trash collector only picks up very small bag of non recyclable/non compostable items. And it was so easy!

Composting, for me anyway, has always been the “final frontier” in green living. It was always too complicated or too gross to deal with. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Its easy as having a separate, small trashcan with a lid next to your regular trashcan. We put everything organic in there, banana peels, food scraps, paper towels, even coffee grinds and filters. Don’t put meat scraps or dairy items in there, you will invite bugs and or a really bad smell. Neither of these things are welcome in my house so we avoid them.

We used an old “Rubbermaid” storage bin with a tight fitting lid and some holes poked in it. You want some ventilation, but make the holes small enough so that a lot of bugs cant get in there. You don’t want flies in your compost bin, they will lay eggs and nobody wants to deal with maggots. I don’t anyway. We punched a screwdriver through the plastic bin to make the holes.

In my opinion, too much emphasis is placed on the “layering” of the proper composting materials. I think this might even be why some people might be apprehensive about starting. Its really no big deal, if you start with the “proper” layering, it may break down a little faster, but its not a race, and its not anything to stress over either.

That being said, I think its best to keep the correct approximate ratio of different materials in your bin. We compost lawn and tree clippings, food waste and paper towels, you wouldn’t want too much of any one of those things in there because that will really slow things down. It will all break down, but it may take a while.

Chances are, you will have more grass clippings than food waste at any given time, If you are wondering what to do with it, just put a pile of clippings next to your compost bin and put some in every time you put in some food waste.

Some people have a compost pile or a very open container made with pallets or wood. There are a few reasons why we didn’t go that way. The first reason is that we live in a development where the neighbors would certainly have something to say about a pile of rotting waste in the yard. Another reason is the bugs like I mentioned before.

Animals can also be curious about your pile of waste, raccoons are notoriously curious and will make a pretty big mess if given the chance. Open piles also don’t breakdown as fast as a closed bin because they don’t get as hot and when it rains, all the good nutrient rich stuff gets washed away from the top of the pile. Our little compost bin is tucked neatly under our deck no mess, no smell, no worries. I don’t know why we didn’t do this sooner. Now if I could get our town to allow us to stop the trash pickup all together we could save a ton.

The only things that we throw away now are meat and dairy food waste and items that our recycler doesn’t want. That really isnt too much. So I’m feeling even better about our impact on the environment. We can afford a huge solar array or a wind farm (yet) but we can do something, and the feeling you get when you are as green as you can be, makes it all worthwhile.